Flamingos in Galápagos: Facts and Where to See Them

A flamingo's pink comes from carotenoid pigments in its food: algae, crustaceans and tiny plant matter. The more it eats, the stronger the pink, and the pigment colours not only the feathers but also skin, blood and even egg yolk. The black wing tips show only in flight.

• Head upside down. A flamingo stirs up the mud with its feet, then walks with its head upside down in the water. The tongue works like a piston, and plates inside the bill strain food from the mud.
• Pink milk. Parents feed the chick with a secretion from the crop, which is bright pink too. By the end of a breeding season, the parents have given away so much pigment that they look almost white.

Flamingos need shallow water to perform their synchronised courtship dances. Each female lays a single egg on a cone-shaped mud nest 20 to 25 cm high, and both parents incubate it for 30 days. The grey chick leaves the nest almost at once to join a crèche guarded by a few adults; its straight bill begins to curve after three weeks, and it flies at 65 to 90 days.

Flamingos live in brackish lagoons close to beaches, and because there are so few, they can be hard to find. Parents desert a nest that has been disturbed, which makes the eggs vulnerable.

Guide sighting records list flamingos at 7 sites. 2 are rated Possible, both brackish lagoons: Punta Cormorant on Floreana and Punta Moreno on Isabela. The lagoons at Rábida Beach, Dragon Hill and Bachas Beach on Santa Cruz, Post Office Bay and the Isabela Wetlands are rated Rare. The Galapagos Conservation Trust names Punta Cormorant and the lagoons near Puerto Villamil on Isabela as the top places.

Flamingos can be seen in the lagoons around their nesting period from March to July, and when they forage at other times. The guide records list them in every month. In the next twelve months, 837 departures stop at a site where they are recorded.

As a species, the American flamingo is listed as Least Concern, but the Galápagos population is small. Feral pigs eat eggs and have been reported to eat chicks, sea lions disturb nests, and El Niño raises water levels in the lagoons. Because parents abandon disturbed nests, quiet is essential. The birds are protected by the national park and marine reserve, and the Floreana restoration aims to remove invasive animals that disturb nests. Park rules keep visitors on the trails above the lagoons and at least 2 metres (6 feet) from wildlife.

1. Expecting large flocks. Galápagos has a few hundred flamingos; small groups are the norm.
2. Making noise at the lagoon. Disturbed parents abandon their nests.
3. Leaving the trail for a closer look. Stay on the path above the lagoon.